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Cardamom

Elettaria cardamomum (L.) Maton

Brief Summary

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Small Cardamom or True Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) is a member of the Ginger family (Zingiberaceae). The seeds from the fruit capsules, which are harvested before they are fully ripe, constitute the spice known as cardamom. The Cardamom plant grows 2 to 5.5 m in height. It grows wild in the monsoon forests of South India and Sri Lanka. It is cultivated extensively in these countries, as well as in Guatemala and elsewhere. Use of cardamom fruits for medicinal and culinary purposes dates back at least to the second century BCE. Cardamom is used in rice, vegetable, and meat dishes. In Arab countries and India, cardamom is often used to flavor coffee and tea. In Scandinavia, as well as in Germany and Russia, it is used to flavor cakes, pastries, and sausages. It is popular in Indian and South Asian cooking and used to make spice blends, such as curries and garam masala. The essential oil is used as a food flavoring, in perfumery, and for flavoring liqueurs. Cardamom is the third most expensive spice in the world, after saffron and vanilla. It still grows in scattered wild populations in the southern Indian forests of the Western Ghats. Because of the sensitivity of Cardamom to wind, drought, and water-logging, optimum yield is obtained on warm (10 to 35 C) and humid (with >1500 mm of well-distributed rainfall) mountain slopes at 600 to 1500 m elevation under a canopy of evergreen trees. Cardamom has been commercially cultivated in the Western Ghats for 150 years and India has had a virtual trade monopoly until recently. Facilitating trade in cardamom and black pepper was the primary motivation for establishing the sea route from Europe to the Far East. Today, the largest producers of true cardamom are Guatemala and India, but smaller producers include Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Papua New Guinea, El Salvador, Laos, and Vietnam. Cheaper true cardamom substitutes (Amomum spp. and Aframomum spp.) are grown and used in some Asian countries. India and Saudi Arabia consume more than half of the world's total cardamom production. Kuriakose et al. (2009) compared wild and cultivated populations of Cardamom in southern India. They found that the number of branches, number of inflorescences, total number of flowers per clump, number of flowers that open each day, duration of flowering, length of the flower, and amount of nectar per flower were significantly greater in cultivated Cardamom. The primary pollinators of wild Cardamom were solitary bees, Megachile sp. and two species of Amegilla. Cultivated Cardamom, however, was pollinated mainly by the social bees Apis dorsata, A. cerana and Trigona iridipennis (and, to a lesser extent, the bee Xylocopa verticalis and two birds, the Purple Sunbird [Cinnyris asiaticus] and Little Spiderhunter [Arachnothera longirostra]). Although plant domestication often results in a transition from self-incompatibility to self-compatibility, both wild and cultivated Cardamom plants were self-compatible and there was no evidence of reproductive barriers between wild and cultivated plants, although they are geographically isolated. Kuriakose et al. suggested that the observed shift in pollinators with domestication may be due to the availability of a large number of flowers for prolonged periods in cultivated Cardamom that can attract and sustain social bees rather than due to co-evolution of the flowers and pollinators. The cultivation of Cardamom as an understory crop using current growing practices radically changes the forest ecosystem in ways that persist for many years even after Cardamom cultivation is abandoned, presenting significant conservation concerns and challenges, as has been seen in India, Sri Lanka, Guatemala, and Tanzania. (Reyes et al. 2006; Dhakal et al. 2012) (Vaughan and Geissler 1997; Reyes et al. 2006; Dhakal et al. 2012)
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Elettaria cardamomum

provided by wikipedia EN

Elettaria cardamomum, commonly known as green or true cardamom, is a herbaceous, perennial plant in the ginger family, native to southern India. It is the most common of the species whose seeds are used as a spice called cardamom. It is cultivated widely in tropical regions and reportedly naturalized in Réunion, Indochina, and Costa Rica.[2][3][4][5]

Growth

ElettariaCardamomum.jpg

Elettaria cardamomum is a pungent, aromatic, herbaceous, perennial plant, growing to about 2–4 m (6 ft 7 in – 13 ft 1 in) in height. The leaves are alternate in two ranks, linear-lanceolate, 40–60 cm (16–24 in) long, with a long pointed tip. The flowers are white to lilac or pale violet, produced in a loose spike 30–60 cm (12–24 in) long. The fruit is a three-sided yellow-green pod 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) long, containing several (15-20) black and brown seeds.

Use

The green seed pods of the plant are dried and the seeds inside the pod are used in Indian and other Asian cuisines, either whole or ground. It is the most widely cultivated species of cardamom; for other types and uses, see cardamom.

Cardamom pods as used as spice

True cardamom may have been used in Ayurveda medicine as early as the 4th century BC.[6] Ground cardamom is an ingredient in many Indian curries and is a primary contributor to the flavour of masala chai. In Iran and India, cardamom is used to flavour coffee and tea.

In addition to its native range, it is grown in Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and Central America. In India, the states of Sikkim and Kerala are the main producers of cardamom; they rank highest both in cultivated area and in production.

Ecology

E. cardamomum is used as a food plant by the larvae of the moth Endoclita hosei.[7]

Varieties

Cardamom plant

The three natural varieties of green cardamom plants are:

  • Malabar (Nadan/native), as the name suggests, is the native variety of Kerala. These plants have floral racemes (which bear the pods) that grow horizontally along the ground.
  • Mysore, as the name suggests, is a native variety of Karnataka. These plants have floral racemes which grow vertically upwards. The Mysore variety has declined, however, in the past few decades owing to the emergence of the more resistant and better-yielding 'Green Gold' variety, and which is the most common form of cardamom harvested in Kerala.
  • Vazhuka is a naturally occurring hybrid between Malabar and Mysore varieties, and the panicles grow neither vertically nor horizontally, but in between.

Recently, a few planters isolated high-yielding plants and started multiplying them on a large scale. The most popular high-yielding variety is 'Njallani', which is a unique high-yielding cardamom variety developed by an Indian farmer, Sebastian Joseph, at Kattappana in the South Indian state of Kerala.[8][9][10][11] K. J. Baby of Idukki District, Kerala, has developed a purely white-flowered variety of Vazhuka type green cardamom having higher yield than 'Njallani'. The variety has high adaptability to different shade conditions and can also be grown in waterlogged areas.[12]

References

  1. ^ Elettaria cardamomum - Köhler–s Medizinal-Pflanzen - Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler's Medizinal-Pflanzen
  2. ^ a b "Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families". Apps.kew.org. Retrieved 2018-05-29.
  3. ^ Larsen, K. (1996). A preliminary checklist of the Zingiberaceae of Thailand. Thai Forest Bulletin (Botany) 24: 35-49.
  4. ^ Dy Phon, P. (2000). Dictionnaire des plantes utilisées au Cambodge: 1-915. Chez l'auteur, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
  5. ^ Nelson Sutherland, C.H. (2008). Catálogo de las plantes vasculares de Honduras. Espermatofitas: 1-1576. SERNA/Guaymuras, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
  6. ^ Pickersgill, Barbara (2005). Prance, Ghillean; Nesbitt, Mark (eds.). The Cultural History of Plants. Routledge. p. 158. ISBN 0415927463.
  7. ^ Shaista Kokab and Shahid Ahmad (2011). "Developing Herbal Pharmaceutics in Pakistan – II: Distinctiveness of Selected Medicinal Herbs and Uses" (PDF). Managing Natural Resources for Sustaining Future Agriculture. 3 (21).
  8. ^ Unsung Hero: Tale of an ingenious farmer, www.rediff.com, 30 May 2007.
  9. ^ "New cardamom variety – Njallani", National Innovation Foundation, Idukki, Kerala, India: Department of Science and Technology
  10. ^ "Poor rainfall may hit cardamom crop". The Hindu Business Line. 6 July 2007.
  11. ^ "Cardamom: Scientists, Njallani developers fight". CommodityOnline. 8 January 2008.
  12. ^ "White Flowered Cardamom Variety" (PDF), Fourth National Technological Innovations & Traditional Knowledge Awards, India: National Innovation Foundation, Department of Science and Technology, archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-05-17
Cardamom Flower

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Wikipedia authors and editors
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wikipedia EN

Elettaria cardamomum: Brief Summary

provided by wikipedia EN

Elettaria cardamomum, commonly known as green or true cardamom, is a herbaceous, perennial plant in the ginger family, native to southern India. It is the most common of the species whose seeds are used as a spice called cardamom. It is cultivated widely in tropical regions and reportedly naturalized in Réunion, Indochina, and Costa Rica.

license
cc-by-sa-3.0
copyright
Wikipedia authors and editors
original
visit source
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wikipedia EN